Then comes a name which has become synonymous with the beauty of Venice—the Lombardi family—to whom are attributed all the principal late Gothic and Renaissance buildings that enrich the city. As usual, the name by which the family has come down to posterity in the histories of art is nothing but a misleading nickname. The Venetians called them the Lombards. Just as Vannucchi is called Perugino, and Allegri is called Correggio, so the Solari family were known as Lombardi. They were among the aristocrats of the guild, however, whose ancestors had been eminent men for more than a century. We have seen Marco Solari, and his son Antonio, and also his grandsons Cristoforo and Guiniforte, at work at Milan, where Marco, Guiniforte, and Pietro Antonio were successively chief architects. The Lombardi-Solari of Venice appear to have been another branch of the family, equally descended from Giovanni da Carona, through his son Martino, the father of Pietro Lombardi (Peter of the Lombards).[288]
Martino was the architect of the Scuola di San Marco, near SS. Giovanni e Paolo. His name appears before that time as "Mistro Martino tajapiera," when he was, in 1476, sent to Istria to sbozzare the marbles for the sculptures on S. Zaccaria, of which he was architect, though his ancestor Antonio di Marco had begun it in 1458. At the Scuola di San Marco, his son Moro, brother of Pietro, assisted him, and on Martino's death Moro became Proto of the works at San Zaccaria, his son Bernardino and grandson Francesco assisting him. The books of the Administration of that building have notes of payment, in 1488, one "to Bernardo, sculptor, son of Moro our Proto," and another executed on July 20, 1488, where it is written, "And I Francesco di Bernardo, sculptor from Como." Other papers prove the sons of Pietro Lombardo as being Giulio, Antonio, and Tullio. In Tullio's sons two old family names are revived—Marco Antonio and Sante.
To this family may be attributed a large part of the finest fifteenth or sixteenth century buildings of Venice. Pietro's elder brother Moro built the church of S. Michele at Murano between 1478 and 1481; and at the same time designed and directed the building of the Vendramin or Loredan and the Corner Palaces. Moro had been before employed by the Loredan family to build a part of the church of S. Maria in Isola at their expense. No doubt he was assisted by his numerous relations in the guild.
To Pietro Lombardo belongs the design for the fine exterior of the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista. In 1475 he sculptured the beautiful monument to the Doge Pietro Mocenigo, a grand design with seventeen life-sized figures carved in Istrian marble. His sons Tullio and Antonio assisted in this. In 1481 he restored the Scuola della Misericordia, and finished the ornamental gate of the Scuola dei Battuti. In the same year he won in a competition for designs for the church of S. Maria de' Miracoli, and became head architect of that masterpiece of Renaissance architecture. Here he has curiously revived some features of the old Lombard architecture of his ancestors in art. He has made a raised tribune with a dome, but it is square instead of semi-circular, and he has placed two ambones or pulpits, as in the early churches. Pietro could build in Gothic style as well as Renaissance, as is shown in the cusped and pinnacled façade of S. Cristofero della Pace at Murano. The original Torre dell' Orologio on Piazza S. Marco was also designed by him.
On March 14, 1499, he was nominated Proto maestro of the Ducal Palace in place of Antonio Rizo. Seguso and Selvatico attribute to him, with his sons and nephews, the rich and beautifully sculptured capitals of the pillars which support the lower arches "from the Court of the Senators to the second part of the building"; and the internal façade of the side towards St. Mark's, which Selvatico pronounces one of the finest examples of Lombard style. In the interior of the palace he restored the "Camera del Tormento," and built the hall of the Council of Ten, the prisons over the Granaries, and the attic prisons known as "I Piombi."
As a sculptor he was of remarkable genius. Two signed statues in the church of San Stefano, one of which represents S. Antonio, are of extreme beauty, as is the magnificent high relief of the Virgin and Child in the outer arcade towards the bridge. The monument to Cardinal Zeno in S. Marco is a beautiful specimen of Lombard ornamentation. It is rich with carven angels and saints, wreaths of flowers, and all possible wealth of sculpture.
In about 1490 Pietro was engaged on a great work of architecture at Treviso, where the bishop had commissioned him to improve the cathedral by putting a new and ornate façade with a large window, besides building three new chapels.[289] His sculpturesque tastes outweighed his talent for architecture. He left the building at Treviso in the hands of inferior Masters, and went to Venice to sculpture in the laborerium of the guild at San Samuele, the statues and reliefs for its façade. The work not proceeding satisfactorily it was suspended, and on Pietro Lombardo's death even his design was lost in some mysterious manner. The church was not ultimately restored till two centuries later.
He had also the commission to restore the older church of S. Maria Maggiore at Treviso, and there, too, having made his design, he left his son Tullio to execute it. Either for want of means, or disagreements among the Masters, this also remained incomplete. Probably Pietro had too many interests in Venice, where in 1514 he was elected Gastaldo or Grand Master of the lodge; in which office he continued till his death in 1521, a date proved by his son Tullio taking out papers of administration in that year. We have no particular mention of any great buildings by Pietro's eldest son Giulio, but he was greatly respected in the guild, for on June 3, 1524, the Chapter of S. Roch, while deliberating that "Mistro Bon," i.e. Master Bartolommeo Bono, a famous architect, should be discharged from the office of chief architect (Proto) of the Scuola, because he is disobedient and not diligent enough (we perceive that even a Proto had some superior officers or council above him), elected as Proto in his stead a young Magister Sante, son of Giulio Lombardo, but with the proviso that his father Giulio should be his adviser in everything.
Antonio, Pietro's second son, won a certain rank as sculptor, but he is better known in Padua and Ferrara. He removed to the latter city in 1505 with his family, and died there in 1515.